Money Money Money

9,600 Great British pounds is what my treatment has cost me here in a UK clinic. It all suddenly feels very real now and a little petrifying at the same time.

The cost does not include my initial consultation, medication, pre screening or the cost of travel to visit the clinic (once for consultation and then again on transfer day)

I am opting for double donation, so egg and sperm donor. I will save my reasons for using a sperm donor for another day as that is a whole different post in itself!

I will break it all down for you now as easy and best I can, which in turn could quite possibly make me a little bit sick in my mouth when I see how much it all costs! Its quite often a hard pill to swallow as essentially the clinics are a business and people WILL pay. There are a lot of extras that get added on or are optional so this post should serve you well when having to make these decisions.

Standard double donation includes; egg donor, so medication for donor, egg retrieval and their fee (think its around £750 in the UK) Their pre-screening would of been done before all this to make sure they are 100% fit to donate.

Sperm donor, some clinics add this on after but some will add this on with the treatment cost at the end. Just make sure you account for it as kind of a vital ingredient ey!? LOL

You then have additional extras should you wish to add on. I have opted for Timelapse Embryoscope which is an extra £695. The clinic I visited in Spain had this included in their package so I had done some research on it. Without boring you to tears, its basically a fancy incubator and microscope that means that don’t have to interfere with the embryos during the 5 days before your transfer. Quite often not all embryos make it to day 5 blastocyst stage so I want to give my embabies the best chance of survival so I have enough if it does not work first time and of course for siblings. Yes I want more than one! LOL

Embryo Freezing, this means they will freeze any left over embryos as I mentioned above. Some clinics will include a years freezing then an additional cost for each year thereafter. That was an extra £350.

ICSI or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection again not to bore you but they prettty much chop off the sperms tail so the little blighters have nowhere to swim off to and have no choice but to get inside that egg! My clinic does this as standard but I suggest you find out what all the extras that the clinic provides and what methods they practice so you then now what’s a standard or if its optional. For example at my consultation in Spain the Dr explained treatment using P.G.S Pre Genetic Screening on all embryos to pick the healthiest one. In the US this procedure will even pick the sex too but that’s not allowed in UK and Europe. It all ounces amazing and I was like “I need that!” But once I’d asked around on some of the Facebook groups I’m on its not really necessary unless using my own eggs, also it was an extra 3k! PGS does not strengthen the chances of a live birth but it will ensure a healthy birth as they check all chromosomes are present. Anyway, the point is that these clinics are a business and will up sell where possible so just be mindful of that and research before committing to a clinic.

My reasoning for going with a clinic in the UK is the cost is basically the same as abroad and here my future child will have access to more information on their donors once they turn 18 years of age. Abroad donors are completely anonymous HOWEVER since I started this post Ive heard that there is a clinic in Portugal that does use known donors now the law has changed.

Now my child may not care to know anymore than what I know about the donors but I will certainly be open and honest with them from the start.

Here in the UK there is an organisation called the Donor Conception Network who produce these gorgeous children’s books for different family set ups such as solo mum by choice, 2 dads, you get the jist.

I have a confession, I started this post a month ago and then christmas and a stressful time at work happened so I am only wrapping this up now. Lots has happened like donors being picked, scans etc and I am fast approaching my actual treatment! To say I am shitting it is an understatement. I am documenting as I go but may be a while until I post as I’ve come to realise as much a I want to share my journey to help others (and myself somewhat) I am not comfortable in telling all as I experience it. I have an instagram page @earlymenopauseandme where I try to post snippets of what’s going on but when I am trying to process my feelings and manage my anxiety in the moment, I am better doing that on my own rather than sharing with people right away, even with my friends and family. I just have to figure it out on my own until I.m ready to bare all, no what I mean? But I will of course continuing getting this all down in the hope that it helps others and that maybe one day my child can read too and understand where it all started and how they came to be.

I hope you all had a wonderful new year and christmas and wish you everything you hope for in 2019.

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